Peace River Bridge Twinning Project

The Alberta Government is investing in a major infrastructure improvement project in Peace River—constructing a new bridge and twinning Highway 2 through town, between the 100 Avenue interchange and Shaftesbury interchange (Highway 684). This upgrade will reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and safety for travellers, local residents and businesses and create hundreds of employment opportunities in the region.

The existing Peace River Bridge, shown here, will be twinned as part of this project. This bridge will carry traffic east and the new bridge will carry traffic west.

The project includes the construction of a new bridge structure, with traffic flowing west through Peace River on the new bridge and east through Peace River on the old bridge, as well as the twinning of 1.6 kilometres of Highway 2 through Peace River. The new bridge will also have a pedestrian walkway built underneath, lit with colour-changing LED lights. This project also includes upgrades to the 98 Street and Shaftesbury interchanges.

This shows the work that will be done to twin Highway 2 through Peace River over the next four years.

The Peace River bridge is a high traffic structure that is part of the National Highway System and sees over 17,000 vehicles per day, including industry and agriculture traffic. The nearest alternative route to cross the Peace River involves a 70 kilometre detour. Peace River’s hospital lies on one side of the bridge with schools, fire and police services on the other. This means that access to emergency services is an issue when a collision or bridge maintenance occurs. Twinning the Peace River Bridge will not only address emergency access and ease congestion within the Peace River community, it will also provide improved access to key resource industry areas in northern Alberta.

This project will help put Albertans to work, support families and local business and set the stage for future economic growth.

Updates

Updates will be posted here as new details emerge.

The contract for the Peace River Bridge Twinning project has been awarded to Flatiron-Aecon Joint Venture (FAJV) with a modified tender bid price of $148,295,506.30. FAJV started construction in December 2017. The project is expected to be completed in fall 2020, weather permitting.

Construction of the Highway 684 (Shaftesbury Overpass) on Highway 2 will continue throughout the summer and into fall 2018. Currently Highway 684 under Highway 2 is closed, and motorists are using 90th Street to detour around construction. Highway 684 under Highway 2 is scheduled to re-open in May 2018 and will remain open for most of the summer. Temporary periodic closures of Highway 684 will be required when work occurs on Highway 2 over Highway 684, during the closures the traffic will be detoured through 90th Street.

Pier construction started in February 2018. Motorists are advised that 94th Street near the existing bridge will be an active construction site for the remainder of the 2018 construction season. As part of the ongoing construction for the Peace River Bridge, an access road has been built through the dyke, just north of the existing bridge. For more information on timeframes for monitoring river conditions and re-instating the dyke please click here.

The first information session was held June 13th, 2017 at the Belle Petroleum Center in Peace River. AECOM and Alberta Transportation representatives were in attendance to outline the project with attendees. To view the boards that were presented at the information session, click here.

A second information session was held on February 22, 2018 at the Belle Petroleum Center in Peace River. Alberta Transportation , AECOM and FAJV representatives were in attendance to update the public on Peace River Bridge construction, traffic impacts and 98th Street and Hwy 684 closures, including detours associated. To view the boards that were presented at the information session, please click here.

98 Street closed till Fall 2019:

Reconstruction of 98th Street overpass on Highway 2 is underway. Motorists are advised that Highway 2 ramps for the Town of Peace River are closed at 98 Street and there is no through traffic under the overpass. Motorists will need to use the 100th Street interchange located east of the 98th Street interchange to access Highway 2 and the Town. Access to the north and south of the Town will stay open via 94 street and 100 street.

Pedestrian detour West Hill:

Due to construction of Shaftesbury Interchange, west side approach road, and CN overpass the pedestrian trail stretch on the north side of Highway 2 between Highway 684 and 90th Street has been closed till fall 2019. Pedestrian traffic has been detoured to the south side of Highway 2. To see the detour map please click here.